#i am posting this as proof of life

[seijorhi]

Kuroo Tetsurou x female reader

tw: kinda infidelity, implied murder, yandere vibes

"I'm married."

Kuroo flashes the ring as he says it, a not-all-that-apologetic smile on his face. Happily, he doesn't add. He doesn't often need to – most of the women who approach him take the hint and move on, no harm no foul. He can't really blame them for their interest, leaning ever so casually against the bar, his suit expensive, hair an artful mess, Kuroo knows he cuts a handsome figure.

But he has no interest in a quick fuck, nor in anything else the woman before him can offer.

Yet far from being deterred, her red lips curl into a playful smirk. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her," she purrs, and lays a perfectly manicured hand over his arm. "Buy me a drink?"

Kuroo straightens then, lets his eyes roam over her body. Slowly, lazily, drinking down every inch of her. And she is a pretty thing, her form fitting dress leaving little to the imagination. She knows it, too, eyes sparkling as she bats long, dark eyelashes at him.

Another firmer dismissal forms on the tip of his tongue, and yet something holds him back. There's a bad taste in his mouth that's lingered since the morning, the sting of your bitter, acidic words having struck deeper than perhaps you intended.

Maybe he was too hasty with his earlier dismissal; she might just serve a purpose after all.

Kuroo chuckles, swallows the last mouthful of his drink and sets the empty glass down on the counter. Glances at the bartender, "Another, and one of whatever the lady would like."

There's a glint like victory in her face as she says, "Champagne, and make it a bottle."

She makes herself comfortable in his lap, flirting with practiced charm, confident and sultry. Her red tipped fingernails toying with his hair, lightly scratching down the back of his neck as she laughs at his jokes. She'd introduced herself earlier in the night, but Kuroo's already forgotten her name by the time he's hailing down a cab, the two of them bundling inside.

If he were being totally honest, he'd forgotten it the second she'd said it. Names, after all, weren't important here.

"Your wife?" she questions when Kuroo gives the driver his address. Cautious, rather than concerned. He imagines that running into the wife of the man you're trying to fuck probably sucks the fun out of the indiscretion.

He throws her an easy wink, pulling her back onto his lap. "Don't worry about it."

She shrugs, unbothered.

Her lips leave painted smudges over his throat, possessive in a way. Like she's staking her claim over her perceived conquest. "She won't hold a candle to me, baby," she promises, her hand teasingly trailing over the crotch of his pants.

His eyes darken, blood thrumming as he growls, "Don't make promises you can't keep."

She just giggles, tugging him into another heated kiss.

And she barely manages to extricate herself from his side as the two of them make their way into the building, up the elevator.

His apartment's quiet when they stumble inside. She kicks her heels off and attacks his tie, doesn't hear the mechanical clicks of the three locks automatically sliding into place.

Down the hallway, his jacket tossed aside, shirt unbuttoned. And with every step, the feeling of anticipation grows. She's too wrapped up in the zipper of her dress to notice the sounds of life stirring on the other side of his bedroom door, but they're etched into Kuroo. Everything about you is, inextricably.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

He's been waiting for this moment all day, itching and impatient, the sight of you sprawled out atop his bed, waiting for him in the pyjamas he bought you a balm to the day's stresses. You're such a good girl. Even when you're mad at him.

And yet the moment the door swings open, the two of them bursting inside, you startle and flinch– the chain around your ankle clinking noisily at the sudden, jerking movement.

"Tetsu? What– what's going on?" you breathe, eyes warily darting between him and the half dressed woman at his side.

"What the hell?!"

Kuroo smiles – that soft, indulgent expression he saves just for you – seizing her by the arm the second she tries to step back, tightening his grip until she's whimpering, begging.

"Hey, sweetheart. Did you miss me?"

This morning you'd gotten all worked up over some nonsense, silly notions about him 'growing bored' and 'tossing you aside', as if you weren't his soulmate. His one true north.

And he'd laughed and told you how ridiculous you were being – right up to the point where you implied he'd find somebody to replace you.

You're his wife, he won't abide you thinking like that. Not for a fucking second.

You said things you didn't mean, lashing out because you were scared, he knows that. Tried not to take it to heart. You're not afraid that he'll go out seeking someone else, you're afraid that greedy fucking whores are going to sink their claws into him and try to pull him away from you.

They'd sooner have luck drawing blood from stone, but Kuroo's always been one to go above and beyond, especially where you're concerned.

And if it helps put your mind at ease, he's more than happy to prove just how deep his loyalty to you – his absolute devotion – runs. As many times as it takes.

That's love.

With a harsh shove, Kuroo sends the woman sprawling to the floor.

He laughs, "Relax, it's not what you think."

[demigods-posts]

the percabeth + grover in tartarus headcanon during the doors of death scene will forever haunt me. percy reverting to his twelve-year-old self. a loyal heart forced to decide between the two people he loves most. annabeth reverting to her seven-year-old self. kicking and screaming to be put down as percy carries her to safety. grover remaining as the adult in the situation. the protector shielding the kids from harm. and the prophecy line 'an oath to keep with a final breath' echoes in the depth of each of their minds. those three will never see each other again. those three will never be the same.

[aterfish]

Being ace is an opposite of fuck around and find out:

Fuck nobody and never know for sure

[roomwithanopenfire]

Happy Saturday! I'm posting early for two reasons. 1) I'm going on a trip today and won't have a ton of time tomorrow; 2) Today's my birthday! And I'm one of those people when it comes to my birthday and I want the attention 🙃

I am currently on a long road trip with two of my best friends so everyone cross their fingers that it isn't horrendously cloudy and we can actually see the total solar eclipse on Monday 🤞

I haven't done really much writing at all this week because I've been so busy (you can tell that there's only a month left of the semester with the sheer amount of projects I have to do in all of my classes). But I've been working away at editing Proof of Life, which in case you missed it has two chapters now with a third one coming on Monday (if only I could schedule AO3 posts like tumblr posts, my life would be so much easier). Anyway, snippet from the incoming Chapter Three. Fiona finally makes an appearance.

“Don’t mind the mess,” Fiona said, swatting me and my judgemental expression. “I haven't really had much time for unpacking.”

“I can see that.”

“Oi.” Fiona pointed her finger at me—mock-stern. “Don’t get sassy like that with me, Basil. I’ve been very busy.”

“Oh, yeah? Doing what?” 

Fiona clicked her tongue. “Important stuff. Don’t worry your pretty head.” I snorted. Important stuff. Fiona didn’t do anything important.

Don't let this snippet fool you though, this chapter will be mostly sad

Tags and Hellos: @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @facewithoutheart @run-for-chamo-miles @raenestee @artsyunderstudy @onepintobean @prettygoododds @noblecorgi @hushed-chorus @angelsfalling16 @thewholelemon @monbons @shrekgogurt @brendughh @a-maisie-ng @hertragedyconnoisseur @beastmonstertitan @valeffelees

[smallestflowtree]

I haven't forgotten about the Pavel girls AU don't worry, I just started writing the fic and I had some great ideas that I'm really happy with but it's got a LOT more involved and because I haven't written a multi-chap in a few years and I want to keep the tone/theme etc consistent I am basically writing the whole thing at once. It's coming on nicely but also taking a while, not helped by the fact that I keep stopping to draw fan art for it

[sassyandclassy94]

Sneak Peek at “He’s Progressed and She’s Impressed” Part Two

Their date was a simple location: the piano hall on the UW campus. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but it was warm and dry, and didn’t cost money. It was also a plus that no one seemed to care that he was sneaking a non-college girl onto the campus. Perhaps people just assumed? Who knows. Either way, Don was more than happy to get away with it.

They set up their little picnic stuff in a corner, laying everything out on the blanket before beginning to eat. Don was quiet during then; trying to calm his nerves and force food down his throat while he listened to Kate and Shorty (Shorty acted as their chaperone this night because both Joe and Bobby had prior engagements) chat back and forth. In a few minutes Shorty stuffed his last bite of food into his mouth and took a final swig of his soda before standing up from the blanket.

“If you two’ll excuse me, I need to visit the bathroom; I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said after starting to walk off. He stopped and turned back to face Kate and Don. “Play something for her, Hume.” He gestured to the piano and, before turning and heading off in the other direction again, he added, “Behave!”

Kate grinned while Don shook his head slowly. “The fact that he is warning us to behave is downright ironic.”

[total-serene560]

Happy Wip Wednesday! Here's a bit of chapter 5 of WOYM to tide you over in these trying times.

I'm alive I swear

currently posted fic under the cut:

[withbluegills]

Ruskin Spear // Franz Kafka // Claude Monet // Catherynne M. Valente // Edvard Munch // Richard Siken // Mary Altha Nims // Vladimir Nabokov // Suzanne Siegel

[queenlucythevaliant]

Some off-the-cuff thoughts on overspiritualizing patterns in science

I remember watching a talk in middle school youth group about laminin, the "molecule that holds your whole body together" which was supposedly shaped like a cross. The suggestion, basically, was that the cross's image was integral to our molecular makeup and that this was part of God's design in a very Significant way. I was a burgeoning STEM girl, so I taped a diagram of a laminin up next to my bed for a while.

(As I would later find out, the whole laminin thing had/has some reach among Christians. There are T-shirts and everything)

Fast forever to spring of my freshman year as a microbiology student. I take my first course in cell bio, and I learn that laminins are actually one of many families of ECM glycoproteins. They aren't really any more significant in "holding the body together" than collagens, elastins, or fibronectins. They're very important, yes, but ultimately just one type of adhesive protein among many. And! They also do a bunch of other stuff that's way cooler than just. Adhesive.

While some laminins do bear resemblance to a cross when diagramed, it's really only because they have three subchains. Some are t-shaped, but others are y-shaped, and those don't look anything like a cross. Also, when they're in situ rather than in a nice, neat diagram, they tend to be all floppy and then they look even less cross-like.

Source

And when I learned about this I was oddly relieved. It felt like I was right about something that I couldn't even put into words, and that somehow the field of what I could call glorious had grown wider.

Christians are called to see and marvel at the presence of God in creation. I love doing that! I see God left and right through my scientific studies. Yet I also know that the human brain is pattern-seeking and that we are prone to pareidolia. I honestly don't know that there's a substantive difference between seeing the cross in some laminins and seeing Jesus on a piece of toast. It's all just seeing patterns that arise from something else (in the case of laminins, being able to bind three different molecules at once) and attributing spiritual significance. God is sovereign and maybe in the grand scope of his vision for creation it means something, but in terms of seeing God's hand in science I just find it so... small?

You could spin so many four-chain or four-domain proteins or goodness knows how many other molecules into images of the cross if you pick the right diagram. You could take every pattern of three in nature (and there are many!) as an image of the Trinity. If you really, really wanted to, you could take every six in organic chemistry as a sign of the beast, which would be hilarious in its misguidedness. It just becomes so literalistic and dull so very fast.

Look! Wouldn't you rather talk about the fact that laminins begin to appear along the edge of a developing lung at just ten weeks of human embryonic development, suggesting that they play a role in alveolar morphogenesis? That they're present in the neural stem-cell niche, which makes them an attractive candidate for helping to treat degenerative neurological conditions? I want to go back to whoever gave that talk that I watched in youth group and shake him and say, "God did that, and you're still hung up on the fact that laminins have three subchains?"

[bellamyblakru]

bro the way merlin’s go-to way to show the people he loves how magic can be beautiful is with fire manipulation,,, im unwell.

[junibugs]

hi guys i'm absolutely so embarrassed and ashamed to be asking this, but if you could send me anything, any amount of money to help pay for summer classes i have to take and payments i have to make for for physical health, i will be so astronomically grateful. i've had a long journey with different health problems and doctors appointments, and course payments (which some of you know the history of) and my spendings are running very very low where it's very hard to sustain myself, my health, and my education.

struggles economically and financially are so very real and sometimes they're so hard to seek help for because of the embarrassment that comes with it. i would never ask for anything if i didn't need it for my health or education. i would never resort to this if i didn't think it was one of the only options i had left.

your most valuable donation to me is support and kind words, but of course if you could give anything i would be beyond grateful.

my venmo is @marawrs, and if any other method works better for you please let me know. i am so grateful for all of you and all the support you have shown me over the years. i will forever be thankful for all of you.

[whiskeyswifty]

.

[milfygerard]

Travis has a male "best, best friend" named Ross that's lived with him since he broke up with his ex-gf Kayla a couple years ago and who still currently lives with him to this very day and goes everywhere with him, including to every single one of Taylor's concert that he's went to, and there's pictures of them holding hands with each other as they leave the stadium together after Taylor's concert in Sydney was over combined with Ross posting a meme to his Instagram when Travis took him to that Sydney concert about a yellow M&M and a blue M&M being a gay couple when he had worn a yellow t-shirt to Taylor's concert and Travis had worn a blue t-shirt.

Jeeze, leave the damn man be, when the break-up article that Taylor had Tree write for this silly "Traylor" PR fodder after she sent her Dad and lawyers on several documented trip to meet up with a bunch of KC Chiefs executives all the way back betwen January and March 2023 drops in the next couple of days, let the man go be a homoerotic dude-bro who kisses his male bestie that's lives with him for years on the mouth goodnight instead of trying to insist that his and Taylor's relationship was ever more than a simple, impersonal mutually beneficial business relationship that Travis used to score points with his gay-themed friendship braclet making Swiftie boyfriend Ross by getting him into a bunch of Taylor's concerts for free lmao

I so so brought this upon myself

[acesammy]

Ok but like it’s a terrible life is not evidence of… literally anything. If the angels wanted an actual test of whether or not sam and Dean could like a normal life, they sure as FUCK wouldn’t leave Sam with memory dreams and they wouldn’t drop them in a haunted building

[oflgtfol]

in my monthly “mourning the part of me that died last year” era

[wildstar25]

WOL and Y’shtola mini-scenario immediate post reunion in shadowbringers under the cut. 

[Context: between markers during quest “a day in the neighbour hood”. While Y’shtola has a good feeling as to why she couldnt recognize Arsay, its clear Arsay is completely unaware of what is happening to her. Fully misinterpreting the events as familiar feelings of abandonment take over, Arsay snaps at Y’shtola at the first opportunity and hastily exists the cave in a huff.]

Y’shtola: To think I’d find the “Warrior of Darkness” sulking, of all things, when there’s a whole new village full of other people's problems you can stick your nose into. Is this how you have changed? I can’t say its very becoming of you.

Arsay: ... 

Y’shtola: ... <sigh>  

Y’shtola: Did that rude welcome of mine offend you so? Surely by now you are no stranger to having a mass of weapons pointed towards you. 

Arsay: ... 

Y’shtola: You have to understand, it’s your aether. It...  after three long years on the first I’ve learned to equate aether such as yours to that of an imminent threat. These people have already lost so much, I can’t afford to take chances with their safety.

Y’shtola: Had I arrived to the scene a moment earlier, heard your voice first, perhaps then- 

Arsay: I’m not mad at you.

Arsay: I... I’m upset with myself. To think myself so important to you that you could recognize me at a glance. That you would not forget me after being apart for a time. I believed because I care so much for you... perhaps you would do the same in turn. A childish folly I thought I’d never repeat. 

Arsay: You’re my best friend Y- Matoya. Your words sting like adder bites and you can read through tomes faster than I can take down a primal. When we part on separate adventures, there are moments where I want nothing more than to see you again. I know you can’t see me the way I see you, it’s unfair of me to expect that of you; yet, to know I am nothing more than an indistinguishable pool of aether in your eyes... Pray, tell me. Do I mean so little in your life as to not be remembered? Did you not think of me at all, even a bit? 

Y’shtola: <scoffs> Don’t be so daft, of course you’ve crossed my mind. When I first arrived to this reflection I thought to myself how worried you must be. That you were probably putting all other duties on hold to instead watch my bedside, as you before did in Rhalgr's Reach. 

Y’shtola: Time moved on here. I got embroiled in the mysteries of the First. I couldn’t very well squander this opportunity in front of me by spending all my energy thinking about if or when I’d ever get to see you again. You know better than most I’m not one to dwell on such things... Perhaps the picture I had of you in my mind faded somewhat along the way but it was not due to lack of caring. It’s the opposite, really. Were I more indifferent, recalling our moments together might have caused me far less grief.

Y’shtola: Suffice is to say, you are important to me too, Arsay. Not only as a fellow scion, but as a dear friend. I couldn’t forget you. Not in any way that matters. You need not jump to such nonsensical insecurities.  

Arsay: ... 

Y’shtola: Now, does that clear things up; or will you force my hand into professing even more superfluous information regarding how I feel.  

Arsay: No, that’s... that was enough. Forgive this outburst of mine, I don’t know what came over m-

Y’shtola: Think nothing of it. I only hope you return to your old self.  

Arsay: Thank you.